Go Out With a Bang
by The Neon Catz
Summary: Imagine a world where we have advanced medicine to prevent someone from dying, but it is not enough to let someone fully live, either. Enter the life of Natsu Dragneel, stuck on a cycle of In Between ever since "the accident." But is this what he really wants? TW Hospital Setting, Death. NeonClan June/July Monthly Writing Contest


Natsu Dragneel had always been an adventurous person. Everyone knew that. And always standing right beside him during the adventure was Gray Fullbuster.

So why the bleap was Natsu lying in a bland white hospital bed, with Gray sitting in the visitors' chair beside him?

Sigh. Things definitely weren't the way they used to be. Natsu gazed up from his horizontal position, and glanced towards the stripper waiting next to him. The monitors kept on bleeping, breaking the otherwise deadly silence.

Except Natsu now knew that 'deadly' wasn't an option for him, yet 'lively' wasn't either. Every single day since the accident, the patient was hooked up to the infernal monitors, attached to IV tubes all over his body, and force-fed twenty one pills stuffed to the brim with medication that would help him survive, but not really live.

The truth is, Natsu couldn't die, being in the hospital, as long as he did what he was told. But the state-of-the-art technology that the medicine used was quite yet advanced enough to fully cure him, which was a bummer. No talking for more than ten minutes, no extraneous movement, pretty much no movement at all either, a strict diet of liquids, and no fights whatsoever. 'Course, this may seem basic, but for Natsu, it was the hardest struggle every day.

* * *

 _Year 2081, July Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster are five years old._

 _It was a beautiful autumn midday in Magnoliaville. The orange leaves floated down from the few rare trees that remained. Rumor had it that Air Co._ _was going to put on a surprise colors show at sunset. Word had leaked out somehow, and everyone in the town was getting excited._

 _Natsu stumbled out of his house after lunch, waiting to play with someone. Anyone, really._

 _Not before long, the pink-headed kiddie noticed a black-haired boy stepping out of his home as well. Oddly enough, no anxious parents were around, watching. The other child wobbled forward towards where Natsu was waiting._

 _"Hi, my name is Gray; do you wanna play with me?"_

 _Gray? That was a stupid name; his hair was black, not gray! So without a word, Natsu threw a punch at Gray's stomach. Gray doubled over in pain, but still rammed his tiny body into Natsu._

 _Their parents tsked at them; they had stepped outside unnoticed. "No fighting, boys," they scolded, and the two of them stopped._

 _Natsu smiled a holey grin. His fist had tasted its first sip of fight, and it sure did like it._

* * *

Back in the hospital room, Natsu smiled slightly reminiscing on the memory. From then on, Gray and Natsu became partners-in-crime, although at most times it seemed that they fought each other more than they fought alongside each other.

He carefully opened his lips, deciding to rebel against the nurses, having used up all his talking time. "Hey Gray, remember the days when we were young?" he whispered out, catching his friend by surprise, even though Natsu had spoken out of turn every day in the three months after the accident.

* * *

 _Year 2086, Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster are ten years old._

 _"Come on, Gray, I'll leave you behind!" a young voice called out, full of glee, as he raced towards a favorite clearing with a friend. They were neck and neck 'till the end, and then they collapsed onto state-of-the-art beanbag chairs out of sheer exhaustion._

 _Natsu sat up, panting like crazy. "I refuse to accept a tie," he stated, arms crossed stubbornly._

 _"Try me," Gray said, sitting up as well with posture as straight as a board in response to Natsu's challenge._

 _Of course, a fight ensued._

 _After the intense flurry of kicks, punches, and various other exciting violence, the boys both fell back onto the cushions, absolutely winded, and Natsu the one victorious this time. The two of them gasped for air, sweat drops slowly rolling down their faces constantly._

 _"I'll beat you next time!" Gray managed to shout out._

 _"Nah," Natsu said casually, grinning playfully at his friend. Somehow, in the summer heat wave, Gray had already lost his shirt. They momentarily glared at each other, but burst into laughter as soon as they had began._

 _When their guts started aching in pain way too much, they stopped, and hush descended from above, with the polluted, oxygen-deprived air atop The Bubble and the flying debris left behind._

 _"Hey," Gray started, "do you ever think about dying, Natsu?"_

 _Natsu shrugged, airing out his soaked white cotton t-shirt. "Eh, I dunno. I mean, I don't wanna pass on peacefully at the age of Mr. Dreyar from MagnoliavilleSchool Inc. I wanna go out fighting, leaving an impact on the world. I wanna go out with a bang. A loud one, at that."_

 _"Me too," Gray agreed, wiping his brow._

 _"But for now, let's enjoy the world as it is, and just have fun!"_

* * *

Gray laughed. "Of course I do! Man, those were the good days..." he trailed off, not looking directly at Natsu. They both grimaced.

"Yeah, they were. We had it all back then: youth, freedom, and the ladies," Natsu said with a wink, some of his old charm coming back in the depressing setting of the hospital.

His friend moved to punch him in the arm, but then remembered. "Come on, the ladies didn't like you or me!" Gray told him. "Have you gotten amnesia as well, and forgotten all of your twenty years? Or have I forgotten that you got amnesia?" He scratched his head in mock confusion.

Natsu gave him a suspicious glance. "If I remember correctly, that Juvia Lockser girl was hanging all over you, and I would like to think that the Lucy girl with the big bust was interested in me."

"Oh, shaddap."

* * *

 _Year 2091, Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster are fifteen years old._

 _Grunt. Of course the police department couldn't be bothered to drag the criminals the friends took out to the prison themselves, so Natsu and Gray had spent the rest of the spring afternoon hauling over the gang of thugs to the local jail. The police would finally take care of them there._

 _As the two of them walked slowly to the ice cream parlor, all of a sudden, Juvia jumped out of the bushes. "Juvia wants to eat ice cream with you, Gray-sweetie!"_

 _Gray screamed in fright, but then calmed down and sent a dirty look towards the laughing Natsu. "I, er, sorry Juvia, but I was hoping to have ice cream with just Natsu today."_

 _The blue-haired girl grinned and did a little dance. "Juvia will take that as a yes!" Gray face-palmed, his blush growing. Juvia's eyes brightened even more as she got an idea. "Juvia will bring along Lucy for the Natsu boy!"_

 _Natsu found his blush matching his pink hair, twinning with Gray._

 _Quick as a Flash, Juvia disappeared and reappeared, a confused Lucy Heartfilia with her when she returned. "Friends, let us now eat the ice cream of love and be happy!" Juvia said as she pushed them all into the ice cream parlor._

 _Immediately, their sweet treats were presented to them by a machine, and they all sat down at a table to eat._

 _Everything was silent as they licked up the manufactured ice cream, except for Juvia batting her eyelashes at Gray-sweetie constantly, and Lucy getting an awful brain freeze at one point._

 _After the dessert was consumed, everything was even more awkward. "Um, bye!" Natsu and Gray shouted simultaneously as they leaped for the door._

 _Once they were safely out of range, Natsu swiveled around to face Gray._

 _"Oh God."_

* * *

Natsu hesitated for a moment. "On a more serious note, can you do a favor for me?" he asked tentatively, avoiding eye contact with Gray again.

Above Gray stopped short of making a wisecrack about Lucy and him. "Depends," he answered slowly. "What do you need me for?" Dammit, he was scared. The last time Natsu had asked him to do a favor for him was the day of the accident...

* * *

 _Year 2096, Natsu Dragneel and Gray Fullbuster are twenty years old._

 _Three months before present._

 _Day dubbed as "the accident."_

 _In their old clearing, Gray wondered why Natsu had urgently called him here for a meeting. And why he hadn't shown up himself yet._

 _Finally, Natsu appeared, all woozy and wobbling around. "I tried... using... the floating trains..." he managed to get out, before he collapsed onto a beanbag chair from the olden days._

 _Clearing his head and getting back to normal, Natsu sighed. "Sorry about that, Gray. I swear, I'll never ride one of those infernal vehicles again!" he exclaimed, shaking his head. "Anyway. Gray, can you do a favor for me?"_

 _Gray smiled. "Sure, what do you need me to do?" It surely couldn't be too bad. Then again, this was Natsu._

 _"Life is getting boring. I need some spice, I need some adventure! I want to... explore outside of the bubble."_

 _A few hours later, Natsu Dragneel was lying unconscious in the Magnoliaville hospital._

* * *

"Remember how when we were ten, and you asked me about dying?"

Gray nodded grimly. "Yeah, I do. You said... you said you wanted to go out with a bang," Gray stated, as the puzzle pieces finally clicked into place. He knew what Natsu wanted to do, and there was no stopping him.

Shakily, without words, Gray helped Natsu unhook himself from the monitors and IVs.

Natsu fully grinned for real now, for the first time in three months. "Come on, let's fight. Help me go out with a bang."

Punch. Punch. Kick in the chest. Block, then punch with the other hand. After three minutes, a certain pink-haired man lay unmoving on the floor.

A certain black-haired man's heart was shattered, and he repeated his friend's final words over and over again.

* * *

нєℓρ мє gσ συт ωιтн α вαηg~


End file.
